The most unusual ruins

Usually, the sight of an abandoned or dilapidated building, and even an unfinished building, is a sad sight. People often do not bring to mind the grandiose projects and throw the already created them in the name of something else.

Ruins at times even frighten – this is the place where people left, but there is an invisible history, some energy. Nevertheless, some ruins, fresh enough, acquired if not a second life, then interest in themselves from the public. People have discovered that these objects can perform other functions, which we’ll talk about just below.

Hitler’s Hollywood mansion.

In the 1930s, there was a Nazi organization called “Silver Shirts” in America. Its representatives believed that soon Hitler would take over the whole world. For this, the Nazis began to prepare the ground in a literal sense. Rich landowners Norma and Winona Stevens, as well as mining magnate Jesse Murphy spent $ 4 million to purchase a villa from the famous western actor, Will Rogers. The amount is considerable, today it is equal to 66 million. Fans of the German leader hoped that after the seizure of power in the country, Hitler is here and will equip his base. However, initially the ranch was not good enough to receive such a high guest. Then the “Silver Shirts” held a major overhaul in the building, built an air-raid shelter, and planned where there would be a large number of guards. The building was equipped with a diesel power plant and air conditioners. According to plans, there was to appear a swimming pool, a gym and a library. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the construction of the mansion stopped – the FBI arrested about fifty members of the organization. The house, considered at that time one of the most expensive private real estate in the world, remained abandoned. Today, the ruined premises are entirely covered with graffiti. In 2012, the authorities announced a desire to evenly level this place to the ground and allocate it for picnics.

Fordland.

Henry Ford was a man who was not afraid to dream. But that’s what helped him to implement big projects. Ford Motor Company revolutionized the global automotive industry, influencing the entire industry of the country. But for a businessman this was not enough, he wanted to change the whole world. In 1928, Ford began investing huge amounts of money in the creation of a rubber plantation in an isolated area of ​​the Amazon rainforest. At first glance, it may seem that the project had good economic motives. The car company really in huge quantities needed tires for tire production. In fact, the project had far more global goals. Especially for Brazilian workers who worked all day on plantations, the city was built according to the American image. There were golf courses, selling hamburgers, working ice cream parlors, there were classical white fences. This settlement was called Fordland, and it was copied from Dearborn, Michigan. Residents were obliged to engage in gardening, prohibiting the use of alcohol. Apparently, Ford dreamed of primitive Brazilians to make exemplary Americans. Unfortunately, Ford’s mission to bring civilization to Amazonia ended in failure. First of all, the Brazilians did not like the American style of dress imposed on them. It was not suitable for a damp and hot climate. Eating the same workers had unusual black bread and canned peaches. The Brazilians did not understand why they should work on a hot day, not on cool evenings. The city was built among the jungle, which led to epidemics of malaria and yellow fever. A ban on the sale of alcohol, local residents have learned to bypass with the help of illegal bars. New American homes also fell into displeasure with the Brazilians, eventually they left the Fordland immediately after receiving the calculation. In total, in the construction of an American town on a foreign land, Ford invested $ 20 million.To sell it it was possible in 1945 together with plantation to the government of Brazil for only 250 thousand dollars. And today in the jungles of the Amazon, the American ghost town is rotting and falling apart.

Space guns in Barbados.

There are several expensive real estate objects on the Platinum Coast of Barbados, among the most-most. This place is crowded with villas, hotels, golf courses. Surprisingly, in this paradise corner lies the legacy of the Cold War. At one time, America together with Canada launched the HARP project (not to be confused with HAARP, which allegedly affects the ionosphere). According to the plans in Barbados, huge cannons were built that could launch their shells into space. The project was headed by Dr. Jerald Bull. This Canadian engineer was literally obsessed with erecting huge guns. Do not look for this Freudian motifs, he just loved explosions. Every time a cannon was fired, an earthquake caused all houses to shake on the south coast of the island. As a result, the military department was forced to even pay for repairs to the nearest dwellings. In 1968, project funding ceased, because then the American authorities realized that there are also cheaper ways to launch weapons into space. And the government of Barbados was hostile to prolonging the lease of the phone, having learned that Dr. Bull was involved in illegal arms supplies to South American apartheid. Then a huge cannon was simply abandoned. Since then, the huge weapon is slowly covered by rust under the influence of the sea breeze. Iron relic has survived to this day, towering over the waters of the Caribbean Sea. And Dr. Bull mysteriously died in 1990, when he illegally began to build a similar giant cannon for Saddam Hussein.

Abbey of sex magic Aleister Crowley.

In the history of England Aleister Crowley remained a mystic and a dark magician. This man was not afraid to call himself “Great Beast 666”. British tabloids openly called him the worst person in the world. And Crowley appeared in a wealthy family of brewers. But he did not follow his father’s steps, preaching occultism, bisexual relationships and sex magic. Crowley himself declared a prophet, who is to give mankind a new path. The whole life of this extraordinary man resented the conservative English circles of that time. After studying the history of other mystical orders, Crowley decided to create his own abbey, where he could preach and his new religion. The central idea of ​​Thelema was: “Do what you want, that’s the whole law. Love guided by the will is the law. ” After consulting with his spiritual mentors, Crowley chose the small quiet town of Cefal на in Sicily to house his abbey. Adherents Crowley bought several old one-story villas and created from them communal dwellings, as well as a ceremonial temple for their magical rites. Crowley himself covered the walls with murals depicting sexual practices, demons, laughing goblins. And especially saturated and terrible were the murals in his own bedroom of the “prophet”. It was called “room of nightmares” and there were rituals with the use of psychoactive substances. Thanks to hallucinations, believers saw terrible pictures in reality. Only in 1922 the abbey was closed. The reason for this was the death of Raul Laveday, a student of Crowley. His widow in London gave an interview to the press, where she told that her husband was either poisoned or killed with black magic. Later it turned out that Lavedey had been poisoned by contaminated water from a nearby stream, as Crowley had warned him. But the press made a fuss and the Mussolini government, not particularly welcoming sexual practices, quickly took advantage of the pretext, closed the abbey, and Crowley himself was expelled from Italy. Local residents partially smeared demonic frescoes. The villa was still in ruins, still uninhabited. Even through the whitewind you can see the psychedelic frescoes of Crowley.And while the Italian government is trying to sell this object to someone, there is still no wish.

Plymouth, the island of Montserrat.

Stories when the volcano buried its eruption settlements, a lot. The most famous example is Pompeii next to Vesuvius. But this city was not so lucky. In the Caribbean Sea there is a quiet island of Montserrat. He was hit by a powerful hurricane in 1989, which turned 90% of the buildings into ruins. But the inhabitants of the island and the inhabitants of the city of Plymouth began to recover together, without succumbing to despair. And in 1995, the inhabitants of Plymouth were removed from the island because of the danger of eruption of the awakened Soufriere Hills volcano. A year later the inhabitants of the island returned, believing that the danger had passed. But on June 25, 1997, the eruption took place, and the city of Plymouth was buried under a layer of mud, ash and frozen lava. Today, the city remains buried – from the ground protruding tops of houses, cars and even red phone booths. Ashes quickly solidified to a density of concrete. In some places, from the ground, roofs of high-rise buildings can hardly be seen. That catastrophe claimed the lives of 19 islanders. The inhabitants of Plymouth left their city forever, and the island remained virtually uninhabited.

Gussenville.

For those 144 families who called this French town their home, it seemed like a paradise on Earth. After all, a cozy and illuminated town is in the green suburbs of Paris. But he did not absorb the features of the neighboring megalopolis, remaining in a rustic charming and friendly. But in the summer of 1973, a prototype of the Soviet supersonic passenger aircraft TU-144 fell on Goussainville. The liner swept through a small town, destroying 15 houses and killing eight locals. In that accident, all six crew members were killed. This disaster outlined a new future for the city. The era of air transport has come. Just one year after the accident, the International Airport of Paris named de Gaulle was opened. The airport is located just a few kilometers above the town. It quickly became one of the busiest in Europe. As a result, roaring planes began to fly low over Goussainville day and night. Houses trembled, and people could not sleep. Residents began to write petitions, gather at a rally. But could the authorities refuse the largest airport in the country? Literally a year after its opening, almost all the citizens left the city. Some of them fled so quickly that they did not even bother to sell their homes. Today the city has turned into a ghost, houses are gradually turning into ruins and overgrown with grass and bushes.

Laboratory of the Renaissance Island.

In 1948, the Renaissance Island was a small piece of land in the Aral Sea. The Soviet government decided to set up a small research laboratory there, away from prying eyes. Without access to the outside world, this facility has become the main center for the development of military biological weapons. Almost 40 years, scientists regularly checked their achievements, releasing them into the air and checking the impact on livestock. On the island, strains of anthrax, smallpox, bubonic plague and tularemia were tested. Many of these viruses have been genetically modified to become even more dangerous than their natural counterparts. In 1971, the smallpox virus left the island, killing 10 people, until it was destroyed. And in 1988 the Soviet military system, desperately trying to hide the results of its biological developments, brought to the island all its stocks of anthrax strains and carefully buried it. However, the groundwater washed away the shelter, poisoning the island. The laboratory had to be abandoned. But worst of all, the island began to grow. In the 1960s the rivers feeding the Aral Sea were allowed to be irrigated. The huge reservoir began to decline rapidly. By 2007, this lake, once one of the largest in the world, has preserved only a tenth of its area. So, one of the most serious environmental disasters in history happened.Together with the reduction in the area of ​​water, the area of ​​the island also increased. Technically, he even ceased to be, connecting with the mainland. So in 2001 a land passage appeared to the area that CNN once called “a time bomb in the heart of Central Asia”.

The unique Satorn tower.

In the early 1990s, the Thai economy was booming. On the streets of Bangkok, huge cranes were everywhere piling up – hundreds of construction projects were launched in the country. Investors invested huge amounts of money building new skyscrapers. They had to become the essence of a new, rich Thailand. One of these buildings was the Unique Satorn Tower, which was supposed to open more than 600 apartments and shops. But it turned out that the foundation for the construction was chosen shaky, in a figurative sense. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis came to Thailand, which immediately froze large-scale construction projects. Among them was the giant Unique Tower. The complex with luxury apartments and offices had an interesting rounded design in the form of hundreds of sparkling balconies. With the collapse of the national currency, construction was stopped. As of 2013, in the center of Bangkok, there is an abandoned futuristic 49-story building. Here everything is dilapidated and disorder reigns. In the skyscraper live birds and rats. It is believed that the structure of the building is unstable, from his visit it is worth noting – in the floor there are big holes. To top it all, it turned out that many of the empty 649 apartments are inexplicably filled with creepy mannequins.

Don Laxon’s Mansion.

In the 1920s, the Philippine sugar magnate, Don Mariano Ledesma Laxon, was struck by a tragedy. During the birth of their eleventh child, the Portuguese wife Maria died. Don Laxon was so overwhelmed with grief that he decided to build a new house that would become a reminder of his beloved wife. So, a magnificent Italian-style mansion was built, which received the fame of one of the most beautiful houses in the country. The house had a separate bedroom for each of the 10 children, as well as a balcony where the whole family was supposed to gather, admiring the sunset. On the columns of the house was engraved “M” in memory of Mary. The years passed and the Japanese came to the Philippines during the Second World War. Re-married Don Laxon learned that the invaders decided to use his mansion to house his headquarters there. Then the old man turned to local underground workers, asking them to burn his house. They say that the fire raged for three days. But even when the flame was gone, the base of the building continued to stand. And today this mansion in the Philippines recalls the love of Don Laxon to a woman and to the Motherland.

Clipperton Island.

This small coral atoll in the east of the Pacific lies to the west of Mexico. For most of its history, the island was uninhabited and unremarkable. But for a short period at the beginning of the 20th century people came here, which led to tragic consequences. Everything has changed thanks to guano. Litter of seabirds was condensed here for years, which created rich deposits of this biological substance on Clipperton. By the end of the XIX century, guano was in great demand, as a very effective fertilizer. No one wanted the island suddenly became the subject of a heated territorial dispute between France and Mexico. First, the initiative was on the side of the Mexicans, who placed on the island a small military garrison under the command of Ramon Arnaud. This was a proud and ambitious officer who at first refused to go to serve in such a distance, in fact, a reference. But then he was assured that Arno was chosen personally by the president of the country, to protect the country’s territory. By 1910, Arnaud headed a garrison of hundreds of workers and soldiers. But then a catastrophe came. In Mexico, there was a revolution, and the country plunged into the chaos of the civil war. A small settlement on Clipperton was simply forgotten. Regularly coming here before this court with food and medicine stopped doing it.For the islanders, all this was a mystery, until they were told about the situation in Mexico by the sailors from the passing American ship. The Americans offered the population to be evacuated, because from Mexico they did not have to wait for help. But the proud Arno, tormented in his heart, decided to refuse. He remembered that he was sent by the president himself to maintain the country’s borders and guard so much valuable guano. The officer was waiting for help to come and did not leave his post. This was a terrible mistake. By 1915, due to malnutrition and scurvy, many of the islanders died. Arno, trying to atone for his guilt, along with three assistants, rushed to the canoe for the ships passing in the distance. But the islanders could not catch up with the ships, and after the canoe overturned on the way back the whole four drowned. By 1917, only one man and 15 women with children remained alive. The last representative of the stronger sex, Victoriano Alvarez, proclaimed himself King of Clipperton and turned the remaining on the island in fact into his slaves. He beat and raped women. The cruel reign of the “king” ended thanks to two women, one of whom was the widow Arno. They caught the man by surprise and beat him with a hammer, turning his face into a bloody mash. A few hours later, a military American ship approached the island, which saved a few surviving unhappy inhabitants. And the island has since been uninhabited, the remains of the settlement on it – a mute evidence of how dozens of human lives were given for the guano.